Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, no disrespect is intended, I have no right to use the names.
Magnanimous
"Your back is red."
He shifts under the coarse hotel sheets, hair tousled in his eyes, groggy and disoriented from the long flight and little time to readjust to the world down under.
"Is it?"
He winces as he flips from belly to back and holds a hand up to his face.
"What time is it?"
"Ten thirty," I tell him. I set the video camera aside, the footage of him sleeping saved for another day. I dig in my bag for a tube of lotion, then cock my head to the side and look at him. "Are you hungry?"
He drops his hand down, and licks his lips. "No. I'm still sleepy."
"Let me rub your back. We've got to be off for the zoo in about 45 minutes."
"It's just these fucking sheets," he says as he raises up on an elbow. "Let me get a shower and then we'll hit the road."
"Chris," I reach out and lay a hand on his shoulder. "The water will irritate your skin. Let me rub lotion on it." I hope he doesn't hear the nervousness in my voice.
When he smiles my heart skips a beat. Sometimes I wonder if he knows what he does to me when he looks at me this way. I should tell him, but when it comes to the point the words dry in my mouth. I watch him turn, settle on his belly again, his arms raised over his head. Maybe here, halfway around the world, I can find the nerve to tell him.
He sighs, pushes his face deeper into the pillow, and murmurs it feels good when I begin to massage the lotion into his back. Warm skin over hard muscles, I knead his flesh while the words whirl around in my head.
I don't know when a passion for the music turned into this, whatever I feel now. I am hard-pressed to even put a name to it. Perhaps it's normal for people to feel this way, so much time together on the road, living in each other's lives this way.
His lips are curved into a smile now, he looks peaceful. It strikes me that this nomad life is not alien to him, in fact he's far more accustomed to it than I am. He cut himself a break from his day job, and launched into more time on the road, more time away from Jess and Ash.
He's driven, he's an inspiration. I wonder if I have the courage to tell him the things I long to tell him. How much of an inspiration he is to me.
"Feel better?"
"You have good hands Rich," he murmurs, his voice muffled in the pillow.
"Don't go back to sleep on me," I say softly, my hands pressed against his lower back.
Before he can answer, his phone rings. I grit my teeth and watch as he fumbles for it. So close, and yet so far away.
"Hello?" His eyes are closed, he still has a blissful look on his face. "David. Where are you?"
He pulls away from me, struggles to sit upright on the bed. His expression has changed, he's more animated, he looks eager.
"Yeah? What's the weather like?"
I cap the lotion and turn away. Old habits die hard.
"We're going to the zoo, remember the Koalas?"
I run my hand through my hair, making it sticky with lotion. I can't quite hold the sigh back as I stand. He's completely engrossed in his conversation now.
"Half an hour Chris," I murmur, turn and walk across the room.
He waves a hand at me, and bends his head, his voice a breathy whisper now.
One of these days I'll stop giving to him. I turn at the door and look back, watch as he laughs and rises from the bed, the phone still stuck to his ear. One of these days, but not today.
Distribution: TwoIntoOne only